Weyl fermions and spin dynamics of metallic ferromagnet SrRuO3

Nat Commun. 2016 Jun 8:7:11788. doi: 10.1038/ncomms11788.

Abstract

Weyl fermions that emerge at band crossings in momentum space caused by the spin-orbit interaction act as magnetic monopoles of the Berry curvature and contribute to a variety of novel transport phenomena such as anomalous Hall effect and magnetoresistance. However, their roles in other physical properties remain mostly unexplored. Here, we provide evidence by neutron Brillouin scattering that the spin dynamics of the metallic ferromagnet SrRuO3 in the very low energy range of milli-electron volts is closely relevant to Weyl fermions near Fermi energy. Although the observed spin wave dispersion is well described by the quadratic momentum dependence, the temperature dependence of the spin wave gap shows a nonmonotonous behaviour, which can be related to that of the anomalous Hall conductivity. This shows that the spin dynamics directly reflects the crucial role of Weyl fermions in the metallic ferromagnet.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't